Autism Awareness Month – the cloud of confusion of "labels"

I gotta run for dinner and a walk in my neighborhood after a busy day of getting IT stuff back online after some scheduled outages done today. However, I wanted to embed a video from a YouTube user on the never ending drama with the classifications of the ASD, Asperger Syndrome and High Functioning Autism. Now I don’t agree with some of his thoughts of what is considered with the respective disorders, he makes some strong points during the majority of the video.  Especially when one didn’t have a speech delay and they “automatically have Asperger’s”. It’s rather interesting YouTube piece that I strongly recommend.

Catcha later

Autism Awareness Month: A Post on WrongPlanet

From this blog’s inception, this is the first time I will be referencing one of the most weirdest of weird wide websites. I am talking about WrongPlanet.net.
WrongPlanet.net is a site for people (primarily with) Asperger Syndrome. The site is based and located here in the States however many (nearly 8 to 2 margin) of people located outside this country. They have a strong anti-American bias, a strong liberal bias (beyond progressive or the Moonbat status) and hatred to conservatives, or not even that anything traditional. When it comes to religion, its all virtually all hate to Christianity. And when it comes to tech, its all about Linux (then Mac OS then Windows), because according to those smartasses you can do everything on an operating system that lacks charisma.
Many of the users have “self diagnosed” themselves, another trait about the alleged cases of AS. If you think I was smart, well then I would be dumb when you would read posts after posts of extreme intelligence.  I should also add many users are from “university”. So many of these people were probably socially weird and then they got a label to then define themselves.
Be careful if you ever go on there, there are some fiftysomething creeps on there.
WrongPlanet a few years ago, like this blog, was very critical of Autism Speaks. However as Autism Speaks realized they kinda went too harsh against the higher functioning autism, they started to partner with WrongPlanet. I bet it was the money talks, bleep walks. In anyway, my respect to WrongPlanet stopped after realizing that high functioning autism according to Autism Speaks was part of Asperger Syndrome.
In anyway we have more to blame the shame of Autism. Thanks WrongPlanet!

Is the Mac(intosh) platform dead?

I went to my local Apple Store for a Genius Bar examination about the corrupted data on my MacBook. Turns out I need to reinstall the system software and/or do the “archive and install”. While I was waiting, I’ve noticed the children’s section that as of last Friday that had iMacs were suddenly replaced with iPads.
Is Apple killing the Mac too soon? Why would they kill the Mac if they are still selling more units than the Wintel counterpart, as well as continuing to shatter record sales per quarter for the last several years?
It makes no sense. I guess this was Steve Jobs’ idea when he demoted Apple Computer in its corporate name on the same day he had announced the iPhone. (In fact my second gen MacBook was one of the last Apple products to feature the soon to be former full corporate name on the copyright section on the bottom of the notebook.)
I don’t get it. And with System 10.8 (aka Mountain Lion) basically like a traditional minor upgrade…it seems to be more like an iOS for a desktop. Also the layoff of the “Mac” in “Mac OS” kinda isn’t promising.
I hate to say this, but I kinda miss Steve Jobs. I didn’t always agree with his ideals, but at this point with Tim Cook running the show, I have came to the conclusion that its Tim Cook’s company not Steve’s.
This comes from a writer who started his computer fascination on a Macintosh II and LC series boxes and using System (later Mac OS) 7 onwards to Snow Leopard.
I think Apple is making a mistake too early.

Opinion: Emotional politics = bad agenda

This goes back to a previous topic on the Self Advocacy groups. People shouldn’t be writing stories or opinions as their first draft done on MS Word and saving the file for the first time as if it was their final copy. Or writing Too Many Capitals in an 18th Century English in a 21 Century world where you can make boldfaced statements.  That kind of writing appears one has a cluttered mind and shows an alleged un intelligence.
This kind of methaphor can be considered as writing emotionally, or emotional politics. This is toxic from a political perspective. If I was one’s political advisor, I strongly suggest not writing publicly when you are emotional. This comes from my mother preaching this as well.
I also suggest you do research on any issue. Go to your town’s or school districts website. Go to your state’s website. Click on the Information Technology’s webpage. Go to any agency other than what you typically would need, to distract yourself. That kind of distraction may open your mind to understanding of how a government may work. You may get to understand how a generic government works. Generic governmental agencies are often different than a human services agency or a school district, because there are less emotions involved. And since we have the World Wide Web and the Internet, the power has never been under our fingertips than ever before.
The lack of generic government causes lots of misunderstandings of the system. (This also goes back to the issue of self interest groups.) The narcissism of politics is also making it toxic as well.
Case in point, lets use an example in the publication  by The New Hampshire Challenge, a highly emotional publication for special needs interests. (To prevent any legal challenges, I will attempt to abbreviate the column as per to the Fair Use doctrine for the purposes of constructive criticism)

It appears the majority of our Free State Libertarians and Tea Party Conservative legislators now in control of the NH House,  now view developmental disabilities as a disease rather than a part of the human condition.  These Libertarians and tea party conservatives successfully gained control of the House in the last election, and are under the authoritarian control of NH House Speaker William O’Brien. 

I cannot disagree with the beliefs of what those “Libertarians” …especially coming from a person that suffers in society and questions the autism “disorder”or “disease”  himself.

True Republicans in the state of New Hampshire, have always embraced the concept of “Local Control”.  Republicans to date have fought the good fight, to resist any move of centralization of medical decision making, and tax revenue expenditure. 

Again, “local control” is basically the New Jersey law of allowing every municipality to do almost whatever they want on taxes, and almost anarchy of how to move money around in the local school districts or towns. “Local control” from my understanding has nothing to do with area agencies. Again, self interests = selfishness = lack of understanding how a larger system works. We are talking about the state level mind you – not D.C. (I don’t like “Local control” and I do not like the Jersey way of doing things. Leave Snooki’s world down there please!)

Recently, New Hampshire Commissioner for the Department of Health and Human Services Nicolas Toumpas received his orders from the legislature to design, develop and implement a care management plan for New Hampshire citizens under the auspices of Medicaid.  This will not only lead to a loss of local control, it will also dismantle a human service system that has proven to be a model of cost effectiveness and inclusion across the country.
What is shocking about this legislative imposed mandate is the possibility that an out-of-state for-profit organization will be hired to manage New Hampshire’s developmental disabilities service delivery system.  The system has been efficiently managed at the local level by area agencies for decades and has been considered the model to emulate.  Boards of directors composed of citizen volunteers oversee these agencies.
It is feared people with disabilities or their parents may need to deal with a company based in Chicago or another far flung location, to obtain residential services in Manchester.  To date, people in the community have gone to their local Area Agencies, where cost effective solutions were mutually agreed upon at the local level.  New Hampshire’s cost effectiveness and ability to be flexible has as its bedrock local people who know New Hampshire’s communities best.

Again, more spin of taking advantage of a totally different law, and trashing any hope of saving money and potentially reusing it for the funding of a growing number of legitimate people suffering with various disabilities. The Waitlist would go back to what the law dictates a minimum of 90 days.
However instead of acting like mature people, the people have to resort to political gridlock namecall politicians regardless of the party affiliation, and instead of being proactive, we have to be reactive to everything.
I am not saying we shouldn’t be emotional, but in the other hand we have to be realistic and understand the economic issues. In every industry in society, in order to stay relevant, they need to cut costs. Why dont the government use the same practice?
And how come these narrow-minded people can get away writing things they have no damn clue about? If you want to understand how government works, don’t learn on one system and one agency and one cause. You have to understand a general idea how the government works before people start attacking libertarians and accusing them for violating the “local control” logic when it doesnt apply to area agencies!
It’s a double standard in the special needs world of who can say and what they can speak. And unfortunately, there are lots of people spreading such mis (and uninformed) information. And when you rely on just a few stories in a sensational “alternative media” publication that has bias just as bad as the MSM, you have to read it openly and not guarantee someone whose writing it is accurate.
And you wonder why “republicans” want to defund special needs programs? It’s what you read, in these publications, lack of understanding of state and local government (SL&G) and just plain slander to certain groups and parties. I can see why they think that. And its a shame to the population. The special needs groups are doing this to themselves and at some point they need to understand their wrongdoings.

NEWS ALERT: Autism rates are now 1 in 88 children!

Where’s my breaking news bell?
No this should not be any news alert whatsoever. In fact its hideous. Its insane. It should be challenged. Or better yet, ASD should be renamed as the Autism Spectrum Disease as it has been refereed as an “epidemic.”
On Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control had formally announced that the cases for ASD is now in 1 and 88 children. Their answer is that there are better ways to diagnose children than back 20 years ago and there are better ways now to effectively tackle the problems.
Well we can say the same thing with the Millennial Generation. I bet 1 and 88 adults born after 1977 have a synthetic autism where they are non verbal, and their social skills are problematic where they drink and have excessive sex, degrade their elders, treat people like crap and communicate on assistive technologies (ATECH) like their iPhone, or Android or BlackBerry devices with an app called text messaging. They also use Facebook to socially network, but if you have true case of ASD, its often frowned upon indirectly. If they say something inappropriately, thats ok, but if you have a true case of ASD and you were raised to be accepted as a creep, than you would get blocked and people defriending you.
I am not bullshitting the real cases of ASD (where i still believe in the 1 in 150, not this BS coming from the Obama administration) What I am BSing, is the numbers. Just like in other industries where problems are created to create job security, i think in special education this is the same problem.
People will use man-made to describe something, but for this subject it would offend females, so I have to say that some of the autism numbers or cases may have been woman-made thanks to women (meaning someone with female reproductive parts) in leadership in the local special ed departments, the local agencies for post-21 (or older) adults, or executives in human services. And those same ones are of age that they are post-menopausal, and they have the empty-nest syndrome. So of course, that might have to do with the numbers being what it is…that can’t be a conspiracy theory, right?
Am I advocating a “cure” for autism? No. Do I believe there is a “cure”? No I do not at the moment? Do I believe the “inclusion” of special ed kids in the mainstream classrooms caused the normal students to become more “special” than their counterpart? Partially yes. Do I believe the same practice caused society to be closed minded to the ASD population? As perverted as it is – yes.
The other problem lies in between PhDs vs the Psychiatrists with an M.D. background and their clashes to combat the disorder (the PhD’s perspective) vs. the disease (the M.D.’s perspective.) The DSM 5 is supposed to come out this year, and it may get pushed back a few years later thanks to distraction disorders like “shyness” or a “broken heart” or whatever bullshit comes from the over-educated, rest of the world mindset and the anti-Christan types that are making up “labels” to rip off the insurance companies (and if Obamacare is legal, then we will be ripped off.)
Because there are so many distractions to the DSM, the politics of ASD are still up in the air, meanwhile people like yours truly has been defined by the disorder, and he cannot define himself.
They aren’t kidding when liberalism is a mental disorder. I would love to see that in the DSM, but thats way too politically incorrect to put that in there.

eBay – You Suck

In a capitalism point of view, there is no such thing as a monopoly because in a free market if there one game in town, they must be doing something right.
That would be bullshit, and in this case I am referring to eBay.
I gotten active (i.e. getting an account) back about a couple years ago. I also got a PayPal account because the two entities are basically an unwritten requirement.
In the last year, they went through some big changes, especially to their  generic design and navigation of their website, and the requirements to enter in information of an item to please the “cataloging” system that eBay forces upon their users. They are known to do massive and controversial changes or the “two steps ahead, one step backward”  practices (in some ways they had pioneered that way before Facebook was avaliable to users outside the .edu world.)
Also they are so overzealous on fraud, and of course I don’t encourage e-fraud, but the rules are so overzelious, it makes it harder for me to do business on eBay.
Last winter, I wrote an open letter to PayPal, because they (allegedly the computers) claimed I was at high risk for fraud, or whatever.
Recently, I noticed a blog post on their official blog about this same issue. Again, I am pissed off about this issue. PayPal hasn’t lifted this temporary ban, since my last post on this issue. I have no idea what created this flag, but hey this disrupts my business, it also screws me on my shipping prices because PayPal also prohibits me to do direct shipping because you guessed it, because I am at high risk. I don’t give a shit about “this is a standard FDIC practice” or other bullshit the eBay or PayPal bastards say. My bank (and my new credit union, because I had to switch thanks to Barney Frank and Chris Dodd) never held anything, and they have the same rights under the FDIC or what PayPal is doing.
I blame this almost entirely on a computer and lack of human beings to not sort out the bullshit claims of what a computer may think its saying.
I love using computers, mobile devices and e-commerce sites like eBay. but when they make my life tougher, and even when they think, they are trying to make it easier, it just makes me feel like I shouldn’t be doing things – like this –  anymore.
I think high tech is peaking, its only going to go downhill the way of George Orwells “1984” prophecy (and maybe his Animal House prophecy too) and tech overtaking people’s lives, and how people cannot be detethered for less than an hour before they cry like little babies. I also don’t like how devices and computers are going back to the ol’ IBM where they dictate what we or cannot do (in reference to Steve Jobs’ take on Orwell’s “1984”.) And how the fictional movie “The Net” would become non-fiction 15 or so years after that movie came out, of how computers are the bosses and not the humans.
Which goes back to the fault of PayPal putting my e-commerce to a screeching halt, regardless what an automated CRM system tells me.
I hate eBay/PayPal, but I have to suck it up and accept a monopoly because monopolies can do no wrong.

MSM Stories on Autism….

I have been awake for over two and a half hours, and I was watching the early morning news programs in between watching FNC’s “Red Eye”. I was caught offguard of a news flash about autism.   It’s basically a fill in story on what appears to be a slow newsday, I am not surprised, but at least there is traction for a change as we lead into April’s Autism Awareness Month.
I’ll post video later this morning, but here’s a few blurbs from a CBS wire story,

” One out of 88 children in the U.S. has an autism spectrum disorder, according to the latest estimate by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Previously the CDC estimated autism’s prevalence at about an average of 1 in 110 U.S. children. The new estimate suggests autism is more common than previously thought – about 25 percent more common – and may affect more than one million children and teens in the U.S.
“One thing the data tells us with certainty – there are many children and families who need help,” CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden said in a written statement. “We must continue to track autism spectrum disorders because this is the information communities need to guide improvements in services to help children.”
For the CDC’s study, researchers looked at autism prevalence estimates from 14 areas in the country. Since every state is not included, the CDC warned the rate “should not be generalized to the United States as a whole.” But the data do show that autism diagnoses continue to increase. It’s published in the March 29 issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Boys are still about five times more likely to be diagnosed with autism in the U.S. than girls, according to the CDC report. It estimated one in 54 boys have autism, while one in 252 girls do. The number of children identified with ASDs ranged from 1 in 210 children in Alabama to 1 in 47 children in Utah. The largest increases were among Hispanic and black children.
Some of this increase may be due to the way children are identified, diagnosed and served in their communities, although exactly how much is due to these factors is unknown, the CDC said.
Study results from the 2008 surveillance year show more than 11 out of 1,000 8-year-old kids have been identified as having an ASD, about a 23 percent increase since the last CDC report in 2009. Some of this increase is due to the way children are identified, diagnosed and served in their communities, although exactly how much is due to these factors is unknown. “

CBSNEWS.com
In the middle of a paragraph, I love how many of the MSM is playing the gender card, by focusing on the higher number in boys. As I have previously reported the MSM loves to focus on that because it’s reversed-sexism by indirectly referring to boys as stupid, etc.

I hate this early Spring!

Jeez enough of it already!
I know as a New Englander, I am in the minority of not liking spring and summer and loving fall and winter. But I have a reason.
In the last ten or so years, we have only gotten warmer and not cooler. Earlier spring like weather, longer summer temperatures, shorter to limited fall like weather, and the deadly tornadoes, floods, hurricanes and other deadly forms of disasters that are exclusive of warmer climates.  (To be fair, we have had some rough winters like last year, but that was two months. In fact, from March to December of last year, it was (extremely above the normal for this region.) In places such as New York, Southern New England or Philly, there hardly was any winter (or snow for that manner.)
And today in Schitute Mass, a house fire got so out of control which the obscenely warm weather and the Southwest winds took down several homes in a 3-alarm fire. Fortunately, there weren’t any deaths or severe injuries, but still something negative about the warm weather’s destruction that no one wants to admit about and how its so nice to walk in shorts when its STILL March.
Back to my original thoughts about how warmer weather often attributes to deadly results, no one wants to talk about death, because many people don’t want to think that deep about idealy nice weather.
I’ve also noticed around this area there are more and more people from places such as the Midwest, the Deep South and every other places that aren’t associated to New England, which I don’t like. I cannot verify if they are ones who like/dislike the climate, but I just dont like non locals living in MY state. I consider them illegals. They shouldn’t have a right to live in MY state. Also I know locals that are born and bred from around here also hate the weather. And all the weatherchicks that appear strategically on the local morning newscasts (thanks to the sexist NDs of the local stations) often whine and bitch like prepubcent girls of how cold it is and how they rave when destructive weather comes at the wrong time of the year. Lets admit they are dumb people, like most people who work in the “television” business.
Does anyone ever notice that people who say “Like” every other sentence or says “thats crazy” for the sole response of an opinion ever connect to their ignorance? I have a theory that people from California or Flordia or prefers those climate are unintelligent because their brains are vegetables because the warm weather puts them into a daze. And maybe thats why these groups of people have done things like voted for Presidant Nobama, or let Casey Anthony get away with murder because perhaps the warm climates can cause brain corrosion? Maybe?
The rest of the world IS NOT and SHOULD NOT be LaLa land. Damn these DUMB brats to hell.
That’s all I have to rant about.
Disclosures: This writer had went to San Diego California in 2001, Texas on a few occasions but never went to Florida. Because of the writer’s autistic disorder, he could not enjoy fun in places in Orlando because of his sensory issues at a young age and generally didn’t have in interest of the Orlando parks.

A kind little letter to PayPal

Dear PayPal,
I have had an account with your firm for about two years. I choose PayPal for the reason that I would only have to have one single sign on (SSO) for eCommerce purchases (mostly for eBay.) I liked the idea it would transfer the transaction by using my PayPal login and the other end wouldn’t have to worry about my account information.
Well things in my life changed (and change for me is difficult.) I moved to a different town, along with having to transfer all my accounts to my new billing address. On top of that, my wonderful bank known as Sovereign Bank had almost raped me by forcing me to change to a different Debit Card account from one company to another. Yet another change. I’ve also had a clean track record on my eBay account and I never had any complaints or concerns. But in November, your firm sent something similar to what was stated in a recent eBay transaction that I was trying to sell and I quote,

Dear [blank],
Your funds are pending – please process this order
You received a payment from [blank].
This money is being temporarily held in your pending balance. It will be held for up to 21 days. While it’s being held, it won’t be available for withdrawal.
We’ll move the money to your available balance after 21 days as long as your buyer hasn’t reported a problem. It may be available sooner if we can confirm that the item was delivered or, if this is an eBay item, your buyer leaves positive feedback.
To get access to this money more quickly, please process this order right away and communicate with your customers early and often.

Are you fucking me?
I also couldn’t place the UPS order since I didn’t “have enough funds” thanks to this hideous red flag you accuse me of.
And in the same email you lecture me of doing the following

  • Log in and go to the Transaction Details page to see if you’re eligible for seller protection on this payment
  • Ship to the buyer’s address on the Transaction Details page

I did that!

  • Use a shipping service that offers signature confirmation

OK, UPS does that, and I think its standard operating practices (SOP) I believe.

  • Save all tracking information or other proof of shipment

Jeez, I do that as well, as my own SOP. That’s my common sense practice as well!

  • Let your buyer know their item shipped by adding tracking information on the Transaction Details page

I am aware in transactions that occurred in the summer time, that I didn’t use PayPal’s shipping service, but I went to my local Staples and plugged the shipping data on eBay but not on PayPal.
Also, I stride to perfection because as someone who suffers with an autistic disorder/disease, and being his own guardian, I understand that I have to be accountable of doing such business. I get after people on my eBay account if they haven’t left feedback, and if there are problems I try to resolve (but there hasn’t been such – yet.) I also don’t drive, which in some cases puts a delay in shipping for someone to take me to get it shipped out and even if I can walk in a 20 minute ddistance to the local UPS dropbox, many of the items I had been selling are electronics. And the hot sun (since its almost sunny every day) could cause potential malfunctions.
I blame this on a electronic red flag and I blame you for not having human intervention or some checks-and-balances and bullshit sorting to find out I am doing things right.
I am switching banks in the coming month or so thanks to the Dodd/Frank law and I can’t afford paying ridiculous fees to my bank so I have to wait a while to not piss off the PayPal account so I don’t get yet another red flag. I also am going to reconsider if PayPal is the right route for me since the most accountable sellers are apparently the ones getting screwed by you. I am also unemployed and its been hard finding a job for the last four years and a little extra revenue from selling stuff on eBay I thought would be something good.
Thanks for screwing a customer. Again I may just cancel my PayPal account thanks to your extensive stupidity. Maybe an SSO for billing maybe not the right path since I have recent negative expierence with your firm.
Signed
“Admin” – The Alleged/Forgotten Autistic.

UPDATE: A reply to that Autism Speaks blog…

In case the moderators at Autism Speaks YET again bleep me out, here is what I just replied to that post I had exposed Friday night.
UPDATE @ 11:00am on 11-16-11They YET again disapproved this reply! Apparently because I am autistic and telling the truth, that punk has bleeped out that entire post! You, as the reader need to speak to Autism Speaks and tell them to stop speaking for the autistic community especially with that organization having a record to silence them AND their excessive slander/libel/hate speech towards the ones that has the disorder.

“I don’t understand this post at all. I am taking this as a high functioning autistic, as offensive. I don’t understand why this got posted. The first sentence states: “My brother doesn’t like me very much, and I don’t blame him.” This would be taken as a personal attack to your brother and, “It’s not that I’m a bad person, or that I don’t treat him nicely. It’s not that he’s unfriendly. I think it’s just hard to like someone who’s a lot luckier than you are.”
Who in the right mind would be posting these opinions? And I am sorry that you are a sibling of someone with autism, but I don’t appreciate your Ivy-League “suburbia” rub-ins ether. I don’t know what its like to be a “normal”  persons struggles with a sibling with an autistic, but jeez, would you have some dignity before you click on the “post” button?
I understand Autism Speaks doesn’t give the autistic individual the open mic, but I don’t appreciate this blog to be someones diary of hate speech. I am assuming you have zero editorial knowledge or any morality of how to describe your developmentally crippled sibling.
If I were him, and I was aware you were attacking me on this official Blog of Autism Speaks, I would sue you and Autism Speaks for slander.
Steven
anallegedautistic[dot]wordpress[dot]com

A High Functioning Autistic (PDD-NOS/Asperger Syndrome/ADD/ADHD/Savant Disorder or whatever the flavored disorder of the day) that needs his own world to undercover the real truth of Autism.”